The 2011 annual SAR report shows that corruption is still a problem in Romania, in spite of the genuine efforts to tackle it, undertaken by the DNA and ANI, and the courageous decisions taken by some young magistrates. The processes of privatization and EU accession, as well as the global economic crisis have reduced the total pool of public resources available for embezzlement, but political clients have found new, more subtle methods to obtain benefits, mainly by bending procurement rules or plundering the energy sector. Absorption rates of EU funds are the poorest in Europe: we stand to lose about EUR200 million in the Transportation program only. The rigidity and inadequacy of labor market regulations are about to become one of the main obstacles standing in the way of economic development.
Read the report here.